Nonfiction Summer Reading List

May 12, 2014

Just like my 4th grade fiction summer reading list, these nonfiction book selections are good choices for 3rd and 5th graders, too. Like most boys his age, my 9 year old loves reading nonfiction books on topics he loves: math, science and birds. This list contains a bit of those subjects, but since I want him to expand his horizons, I am going heavy on the art and history titles.

This list is a mixed bag of titles, there’s no hard and fast theme, just a few books I am going to give my 9 year old to read. Of course, no list can be comprehensive, but I hope these books give you a start. You can also add to your library nonfiction book pile by using my list of 55 science picture books, which includes 5 books each for 11 topics.

These books are all heavy on the illustrations and photographs, even the longer ones. Some of them are standard picture book-length that you can read aloud, either to your 4th grader or to younger kids. (Note: covers and titles are affiliate links.)

Summer Reading List — Nonfiction Books

Built to Last is a hugely long book that may indeed keep your kids busy all summer. I hardly need introduce Macaulay, his books are so famous. Lots of detail, intricate illustrations and lengthly explanations of structures will suck kids in. Kids who like to build and engineer stuff will be fascinated. Younger kids who may be daunted by the length and depth of the book will enjoy Macaulay’s My Readers Series. Each of these books looks at a single machine, such as the jet engine, the eye, or the toilet (that’s right). Also available as an ebook.

Eye to Eye: How Animals See The World. Since Kiddo has regaled me with many facts about how birds see, I thought he might enjoy this book about the eyes of other animals. If your child enjoys books about animals, I highly recommend searching out Steve Jenkins’ books. He has written many fascinating picture books at different reading levels and they all include his stellar cut paper collage illustrations. Also available as an ebook.

Moonbird: A Year on the Wind with the Great Survivor B95. Two weekends ago my son met author Philip Hoose at the New York Historical Society. It was a book club meeting to discuss Hoose’s book about the extinction of the Ivory Billed Woodpecker, The Race to Save the Lord God Bird. We’ve had Moonbird out from the library before, but I think Kiddo will enjoy reading it again, now that he’s a tad older and has met the author. Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Honor Award winner. Also available as an ebook.

We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball. What would summer be without a baseball book? My 9 year old LOVES studying his enormous baseball card collection (he is aided and abetted by his dad) and reads loads of stat-filled books about the game. This book is a fascinating narration of the history of the Negro League, its talented players, the struggle of the teams’ owners and the important role the League played in the history of the sport in America. Kadir’s text is engaging, and as always, his illustrations will amaze you and draw you into the emotional life of this historical period. A must read for all baseball lovers.

Master George’s People: George Washington, His Slaves, and His Revolutionary Transformation. A little known fact about me is that I minored in history in college. I would have double-majored but then I would have had to take American history classes and I could not think of anything more boring. The history I had been taught was about a bunch of perfect white men who always had “right” on their side, were inspired to write divine documents and create a nation that stood above all others. See what I mean? Snooze-fest. I find it embarrassing that many of our kids still learn history this way. I really enjoyed this book and the author did an excellent job of humanizing both the slaves and Washington himself. I definitely would have been more interested in American history, had I read more books like this.

Ick! Yuck! Eew!: Our Gross American History. See my above note about the trap of making American history boring though sanitization. Actually, after reading this one you may crave sanitization, but that’s another story. I’ve never met a boy who didn’t go in for the gross stuff. (I’m sure girls will love this one, too. I’m a mom of boys, so I speak from that perspective.) So while they are “eew-iing” and “yuck-ing” and “gross-ing” sneak in a bit of history, too. Also available as an ebook.

Brick by Brick is a picture book thatwill get your kids thinking about the White House in an entirely new light. This is a fascinating book for adults, too and we will all do well to remember that slaves were a large part of the work force that hauled the bricks and erected one of our nation’s most famous symbols of freedom. Smith use poetry to tell the story of the slaves, their labor and how many of them went on to purchase their freedom. (Side note: I love when non-fiction books are written as poems.) Cooper’s illustrations, as usual, capture the faces of history.

Action Jackson. When people point to Pollock’s art and claim anyone could do that, I groan. Really? This picture book will inspire your children to look at the process that goes into art. It takes readers along on Pollock’s journey while creating a single work of art, “Number 1, 1950.”

A Splash of Red: The Life and Art of Horace Pippin. Horace Pippin, who I’d never heard of before reading this picture book, was a self-taught painter. He was shot in the arm during WWI, but he worked steadily to learn how to use his arm again to create art. There are so many things I love about this book, and you come away from it with a strong sense of how Pippin used art to interpret the world. Pippin suffered from poverty, the psychological and physical costs of war, but still, his talent propelled him to create. One interesting note is that Pippin was African-American, but the author makes the bold choice to not even mention that. Winner of the Schneider Family Book Award (plus many others). Also available as an ebook.

Are you adding nonfiction on to your child’s summer reading list? What topics do your children find interesting?

Comments

What a great list. I have to admit that I have not shared much non-fiction with my girls and as a result, guess what their least favorite type of book… Maybe this list will motivate me to change my pattern!

Yes, we own both of those! I esp. love Urban Animals, but it’s not exactly what I’m looking for. I found a couple of out-of-print books online that I’ll look into. I read a class a book about what was different and the same for their great-grandparents, grandparents, etc. and for each it showed the house, the style of dress, the mode of transport, the type of doll. (Really, it was about what is eternal – the sky was blue, the grass was green – but the kids were interested in the buildings!) The buildings shown were mid-century modern, Victorian, and something I couldn’t identify, more nondescript. I’d like to build on that interest but they don’t want to hear about arches and windows; they want to hear that Victorian houses had lots of stairs and maybe back and front stairs for the family and the “help” etc.